March 3rd: I fly north to Hamilton & catch a train back south
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| Lyall Bay |
But 1st, here're the pics I took on the 2nd when walking to Anne-Marie's AirBnB along Lyall Parade.
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| Aircraft & seagull over Lyall Bay |
Overnight Anne-Marie slept in a caravan on the drive, with me in a bedroom. Karen was on a bed in the lounge, & the cat & dog stayed indoors as well.
Before I got into bed I'd opened my window & had the sound of the Lyall Bay breakers all night.
Awesome!
Next morning I was up & porridged pronto, but there was no pre-dawn brew.
As I explained in the last blog, cow's milk wasn't available, & as last night's brew with almond soya wasn't great, I decided to drink at the airport.
I left the house at 0605, reversing my route from the previous evening & walking through the tunnel under the runway.
It was still dark & raining a bit, so I ran & walked & ran & walked to stay drier!
With all the running, I was ready for a brew by the time I reached Departures at 0625, so had 2 long blacks while I waited to be called to the gate.
When we boarded at 0650 it was still raining, which was a shame ~ I'd been hoping for some dawn pics from the aircraft.
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Raindrops are falling on the runway ~
with apologies to Sacha Distel ;-p |
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A rather very blurred view of Lyall Bay just after lift-off |
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| The old slip-way & Hataitai Beach in Evans Bay |
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The Bread Tin~AKA Westpac Stadium, with the Interislander
dock & Town Belt (that's the hill with no houses on it) |
Happily, the dawn sun did make an appearance
It shone onto the hills west of the city, & I got some shots through the window as we circled back over Wellington & headed north.
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| Takapuwahia still in shadow & Mana Island in the Tasman Sea |
I was pleased to see the Bread Tin from above.
I'd been in there for the RWC Scotland game against Argentina in 2011, but it had been dark then, & I was at ground level following the crowds & a piper into the stadium: see blog.
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| South Island astern to port |
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| Mana Island and dawn over the Sounds |
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| Kapiti Island. I was due there in 6 days |
Mana Island was to port a minute or two later.
Thinking it was Kapiti Island, I took a pic
Wrong!
Kapiti Island appeared a few minutes later.
It's not a great pic, but I hoped for better ones on the 9th :-)
I was sat next to a lady who spoke of the Maori chief Te Rauparaha.
There're loads of links in Google about him.
Try googling Kapiti Now &/or the DOC one about the island.
They're very interesting.
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Hamilton is about NNE of Taranaki, & I got this of the mountain
with the early morning clouds approaching from the east.
I think it looks a bit like The Lonely Mountain from The Hobbit! |
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Rivers of cloud in the valleys of Waitotara Forest
& the National Park north of Whanganui |
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| Taken as we passed east of Taranaki, showing the sea of cloud approaching it |
At Hamilton Airport, I guess it was the sight of me taking the photo of Gandalf on the hill at Bag-End which prompted a shuttle driver to offer me the option of a shared shuttle to Hamilton for $30.
I thought that was a tad expensive, but as Hamilton Airport was more than half an hour from the city, & there were no buses, it was that or hitch.
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Gandalf & The Green Dragon pub in Bywater
Matamata wasn't far from Hamilton, & I had visited 'Hobbiton'
from there back in Dec'9~see blog! |
My already-ensconced, co-shuttlers were a Kiwi guy and a woman from Argentina. They were both going on a training course, & when the shuttle stopped outside their building, I decided to get out and walk. It was still before 9am, & the train wasn't due at Hamilton Station in the suburb of Frankton until 1015.
I got some directions from a bloke in a garage, but they were crap, so (being hungry) I went in a bakers & the lady in there gave me much better ones. The route took me over the track, & just before the bridge I saw ice cream on offer (OK. It was barely gone 0900, but I was on holiday!).
At about ten past nine I found the street the station was supposed to be on, but it had bungalows on 1 side & spare land & garage-type sheds on the other & I wasn't convinced. So I asked a Japanese couple doing their garden, & they confirmed the station was at the end of the road.
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| Believe it or not, this was the road to Hamilton Station! |
It looked pretty rural for a city railway station, but there were tracks, signals
& a sign for Reception, so I checked in.
In the check-in queue I chatted to 4 older ladies on their way for a long weekend in Wellington, then reckoned more coffee was in order, so got one & sat down to read one of the ubiquitous magazines you get in waiting rooms.
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| A poster on the wall at the station |
I read an article about Jonah Lomu, & on reading about his early death after his transplanted kidney was rejected by his body, I had to hide the fact I was crying :-(
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| The Northern Explorer arrives |
While I was waiting I got a nice pic of the poster about the 3 great NZ rail journeys.
Having done the Tranzalpine in 2014, I now have plans to do the hat-trick & go on the Coastal Pacific.
And do this trip the other way!
See the bit about the Rangitikei below
When the train arrived we all piled aboard.
My carriage was D1 - at the back, & I was opposite a Kiwi couple.
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A Northern Explorer at Hamilton.
Not my pic: it's from RadioNZ |
The air-con was on, & I was bloody cold, so ~ having noticed the English couple in front feasting on nice looking & smelling butties, I went forward for a look.
I ended up with a warm lamb sarnie & a brew, & sat in a seat in the dining car to eat.
It was warmer in there, & I had a better view (D1 faced backwards), so I went back & got my little ruckie to claim my spot before going out to the viewing car.
The viewing car was near the front & open at the sides, & I spent most of the journey up to Ohakune standing there in the lovely fresh air & sunshine :-)
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| This is a view of inside a carriage from the Kiwi Rail Journeys website |
10:14am 10:15am
HAMILTON
10:54am 10:55am
OTOROHANGA (WAITOMO)
1:14pm 1:15pm
NATIONAL PARK
4:19pm 4:20pm
PALMERSTON NORTH
5:29pm 5:30pm
PARAPARAUMU
6:25pm
WELLINGTON
This timetable is also from the Kiwi Rail Journeys website.
Slightly more than 1/2 hr after we set off, we reached Otorohanga.
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| The first stop |
Because Otorohanga is the closest station to Waitomo, those having the caves & glow-worm experience generally use this station, & when we stopped a load of peeps got off & a load of peeps got on.
I would be making my own trip to Waitomo in 3 days time.
From this point on until after the Raurimu Spiral the blog will be nearly all pictures.
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| Pic taken from the on-board information booklet |
That's because I was on the viewing platform nearly all the time, & didn't interact with humans much.
However, I do have a note about the guys in the buffet car: One was Mark from Sri Lanka, & the other was David from Fiji
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We crossed this road just before half eleven, &
the 2 peeps in the driveway waved us past |
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| A few minutes later we were in the countryside . . . |
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| which got progressively more rugged as we continued south |
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| This was taken at 1129, but don't ask me where! |
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1 minute later, & still nice countryside.
The trees remind me of the Tuscany landscape |
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| Curious copse on top of a pointy peak |
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This was taken about an hour & a half north of
the scheduled stop for National Park where peeps
for Ngaruhoe & Ruapehu would get off |
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| There'll be a lot of trees, bush & farmland pics in this blog! |
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| NZ bush at about 10 to midday |
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| Rural road between Otorohanga & National Park |
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| Ditto |
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| >2 years on, I have No Idea why I took this ;-p |
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| The rear of the train from the viewing carriage |
After midday they started announcing stuff about the Raurimu Spiral, so I went back to my seat & took these 2 photos from the on-board info booklet.
I'd be out on the viewing platform for the actual event, & didn't want to miss any of it.
Then, after another brew & some eats I'd packed for the trip, I went back out for some more fresh air & sunshine.
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| Still lovely countryside . . . |
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| rivers . . . |
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| & hillsides |
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| No idea where this village is! |
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Another one of those
'I don't know why I took this' photos ;-p |
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Curving river, white cliffs & pointy hills.
I didn't know then, but I'd take a pic . . . |
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looking back at the curvy river from the train
on the track running along the cliffs |
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| You may have noticed? . . . |
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| I tend to photo rivers a lot ;-) |
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| See previous caption :-) |
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| A lonesome pine from the viewing carriage |
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| My first glimpse of the volcano in the clouds |
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| What an awesome place to live |
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| Fellow photographers |
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| We enter the 1st curve of the Raurimu Spiral |
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Looking back showing the land
rising on the right (east) |
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| The white bit in the trees is the track below us |
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Another one looking back as we curve up
the northern part of the spiral |
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| Taken whilst the train was in the 1st tunnel |
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We leave the 1st tunnel & are briefly under sky
before going underground for the 2nd |
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| On the last curve |
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This bloke spent almost as much time in the
viewing carriage as me.
By this time we were getting more & more behind schedule.
Apparently we'd had to reduce speed because the
rails were too hot to safely travel at the normal speed! Eh?? |
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| Ngarohoe is behind the bush |
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| Living on Ngaruhoe's slopes |
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I also like photographing volcanoes,
& this is another one of Ngaruhoe |
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I just compared this with the one I took just before sunset
in September 2011, & - judging by the angle, we were just
north of National Park at this point |
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Sadly, the lovely lilac colours aren't as apparent on this pic
as they were from the train . . . |
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| but you can see the lilac on this one |
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Taken from the viaduct crossing the Makatote.
Other vehicles have to go down, cross the
river on a tightish turn, & come back up.
I'd driven it about 1/2 dozen times, & was now
seeing it from above for the 1st time :-)
It'd been a plan since 2009 :-D |
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| The viaduct over the Manganui A Te Ao |
After crossing the Makatoto gorge, I got chatting to a couple of US professional photographers who wanted to know if there was anything else to see after the gorge.
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| My 1st shot of Ruapehu ~ this trip anyway ;-) |
Having followed the SH1 north & south a few times, I told him about the little pointy "egg-box" hills around Taihape, & about the Rangitikei area, which we would see close up as the train crossed & recrossed the river wiggling its way south & west to the Tasman at Tangimoana.
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| Ruapehu in the clouds around about Horopito |
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Headed east towards our stop at Ohakune. By this time we were
nearly an hour behind schedule. According to my camera, this
was taken at 2:37, & we should've left Ohakune at 1:45 |
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| I'd driven across that bridge a few times in my 2 visits to Ohakune |
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| Near Ohakune |
The Lumix battery died completely after this pic ----->
And the charger was back at Anne-Marie's.
Wot a bummer :-(
It meant I didn't get any decent photos of the part of the journey from Ohakune down to Wellington.
I guess that means I shall have to do it again!
But the other way next time!
Heading east alongside the SH49 after the Ohakune stop, we turned south again at Waioru. Passing by Taihape (famous for its massive welly-see 2012 Naked Bussing blog), we headed down the Rangitikei valley towards Palmerston North & the next stop.
With the Lumix out of action, I sat in the dining car & kept getting food & brews: before they ran out anyway!
There wasn't much left to eat by now. Due to the delay caused by the slow-running, they'd been inundated with hungry passengers, & (according to the timetable), Wellington was another 2 hours journey from Palmerston North.
Nevertheless, they still had wine, so I had another Brancott sauv blanc & it was still yummy ;-q
Then I got chatting to a Kiwi guy who told me the line rose after the Paraparaumu stop, & there was lovely sunset over the Tasman when we got there. My notes show the track went quite high on the hillside across from the island, & I'd been surprised to see how big & hilly it looked. I hadn't been able to see much in 2014 due to the rain & clouds.
The camera came alive again very briefly as we came into Wellington Harbour & I managed a last pic in the twilight.
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Wellington harbour at 8:16pm We were very late,
& should've arrived in Wellington about 2 hours ago |
In the end we arrived 1hr 55min late & it was a dark early autumn evening.
I had no idea where to get the bus back to Lyall Parade, but I knew there were bus stops on Courtney Place, so I set off walking.
My notes say I walked along Lambton Quay as far as Willis St., then took a left onto Manners & crossed Taranaki, all the while looking for food. I walked about 2k before eventually getting to the No3 stop outside the Reading Cinema on Courtenay Place.
I knew the No3 went to Lyall Bay, but the Driver didn't know which numbers were where, but when we got to the the Rua St, junction, I recognised where I was, so hopped off: Anne-Marie's was just round the corner.
When I got there, Anne-Marie was in bed in the caravan, but awake, so I explained the lateness to a face under a duvet!
Karen was in the shower, so I ate the last of the Blenheim popcorn & went online while I charged the mob & the Lumix.
The next day I was due to travel north again: this time by Naked Bus to Hawera, so I put aside stuff I wouldn't need for a few days, & repacked with about half my load. Anne-Marie was letting me leave some clothes in my room until I got back from my adventures on Taranaki, Waitomo, & Kapiti Island.
My hair was exceedingly tangled after hours being blown around in the open of the viewing carriage, & it took nearly 20min to tease them all out in the shower. Rather now than at silly o'clock next morning when I was due to catch the Naked Bus at 0800 back near the train station.
Alarm set for 0630 it was time for bed.
OAO
ps. When I find the Rangitikei & sunset photos I took with the mob, I'll update this, but my PC is broken, & the mob pics are on it & out of reach at the moment :-(
After midday they started announcing stuff about the Raurimu Spiral, so I went back to my seat & took these 2 photos from the on-board info booklet. 
Then, after another brew & some eats I'd packed for the trip, I went back out for some more fresh air & sunshine.
